Old Spur legs shrugged at Kira when she mentioned it was a bad deal. “S’not like there’s a lot of grenades around Stableton. Simply a matter of supply and demand. It can’t be that bad, or you would’a refused the deal.” He carefully collected the sensitive explosives and passed them over to the griffon. “You be sure to blow them slavers sky-high. I wanna be able to see the dang fireworks from here.”

He nodded at Dash. “Sold.” He dragged the submachine guns and the caps off the counter, leaving the crossbow – and a few quarrels – for Dash to do with as he wished.

With all potential customers either satisfied or sufficiently annoyed, Old Spur Legs pointed towards the door. “Alright, now git! Go deal with them dang slavers, already!”

As Bakewell lingered in the shade of Spur Legs’ store, waiting for everypony else to finish collecting their wares and exit, and just after Kestrel left for his camp, a hooded pony with a light step came creeping over from a nearby shadow. Without a word, she dropped a tattered slip of stiff, yellowed paper at Bakewell’s hooves. Then, with a slight nod, she practically raced off down a shaded alley and out of sight.

Bakewell would notice that the papery object was in fact what appeared to be a torn-in-half photograph. It depicted a smiling stallion. On the reverse side in neat cursive, a few words had been written: ‘Kill the bastard’.

Kira left the store felling robed but did at least have some new grenades to her ever growing arsenal of explosives, she closed the old door behind her as she started to walk of towards the city gate where she knew Kes had set up his camp as it would be a good place as any to wait for the rest before they would set out to get this job done. The gryphoness stopped for a moment as she looked to Bake and gave her a nod to show that she was done with that old pony.

"Right Bakewell I will be heading to Kestrels camp and wait for the rest there, you can come if you want or wait for the rest here either way is fine by me."

Bakewell considered commenting as the storekeeper yelled at her. Something about dealing with his own slaver problem if he wasn’t even willing to let her stay in the store to accept it. Or perhaps a knowing look and brief “I told you so.” To Cuppa as she left. In the end the beige mare said nothing.

The large stable pony blinked in startled surprise as a stealthy mare came up to her, dropped a photograph, and dashed out of sight without so much as a word. Bakewell had still been staring in shocked puzzlement at the picture and included message when Kira, the first of her still occupied allies to leave the store, started talking to her.

“Oh! Um…” Bakewell jolted in guilty surprise before hastily storing the photograph away. “Thank you for the offer, Kira. I think I’ll just move to the gate, though.” She smiled. Bakewell didn’t feel she knew Kestrel enough to show up at his home uninvited, and there was no real point for her to do so anyway, even if a bit of her wanted to see what constituted as ‘home’ for the big black griffon.

When Cuppa exited shortly after, Bake’s gaze followed the unicorn. Cee was smart, and while probably not a super-close friend, was still close enough. Bakewell knew she could count on the pony to keep a calm head and think about things, just as long as any fences didn’t suddenly grow mouths, or a giant bladed monstrosity wasn’t trying to cleave her in two. She wouldn’t act like the rest of the group and automatically assume for violence, Bakewell could trust her.

“Hey, you’re going to the gate, right?” The baker asked, trotting up alongside Cuppa. “That’s probably where Flash went, too. I want to show you two something.”

Flash was a little more hot-headed than Cuppa, and Bakewell was slightly nervous about showing the pegasus, but he was a close friend even if his hat was super lame. Besides, it was the security che- er, ‘Sherrif”’s job to know everypony and their problems. So maybe he would recognize the picture in some way.

-----

Regardless of whether or not Cuppa followed, upon reaching the gate Bakewell would attempt to pull Flash aside and out ear range of the others by telling him she had something important and private to ask about.

Once out of range with Flash, Cuppa, or Both. Bakewell would begin.

“Sorry for holding us up even more. But I think this might be important. I don’t want you telling anypony about this? Okay? You have to promise. Not Kestrel, not Kira, and certainly not that black pegasus buck." She requested. If there was agreement she would continue, pulling out the picture and showing it.

“When I was outside waiting for everypony to get done” The mare explained in a hushed voice. “Somepony came up and dropped this at my hooves. They didn’t say anything, just kinda nodded and galloped away like their life depended on it. Do you recognize him? Should we keep an eye out for him? I don’t know if we can really trust this, but maybe it would be worth keeping an eye out for just in case he’s bad? Again. Don't tell the others.”

Lightning waited quietly with Kes and eventually caught the sight of Bakewell and Cuppa walking over. He bowed his head to them and perked his brow when Bakewell seemed to pull him away. Following without question, he would turn back to her and Cuppa, if she came along as well. What came next made the pegasus raise his brow a little more. Somepony dropping what looked like a piece of paper. On closer inspection, it was a photo.

Lightning narrowed his eyes at the photo and quickly searched his memory for this pony. Giving a small nod to the earth pony, he would reply, "I do recognize him. Not personally though. This stallion lived here in Stableton at one point in time. He was a husband, if I recall correctly, and he might have had foals, though I'm not sure of the last part. Why? What's going on?"

With the SMG's off his back and his Hunting Rifle back at Lightning's house, Dash currently had 4 weapons to consider for each engagement. His newly acquired Crossbow, his Sniper Rifle, his Marksmare Carbine, one of his favorites, and his .44 Magnum. He had to admit that he was beginning to acquire enough of a loadout that he would be able to attack slavers at will if he had proper support. He gathered his things and trotted back out the door to meet back up with the rest of the group.

He saw the others gathered around outside the store, "Alright, I'm ready... Everypony and griffon else?"

Last edited by Galactic Dash on Tue Dec 04, 2012 10:48 pm; edited 1 time in total

“A cloaked mare gave it to me and ran.” Bakewell repeated. Her eagerness to not hold anything up more than possible must have clouded her explanation. Bakewell turned the photo around so that the back faced Flash and tapped it meaningfully. Revealing and drawing attention to the neat script that instructed simply “Kill the bastard.”

“I don’t know. Just keep an eye open. Maybe he’s been captured. Or maybe he’s a slaver. Or maybe it’s completely unrelated and some upset mare wants us to do her dirty work. Though she didn’t exactly seem very angry. I don’t know. Just figured you would want to know, and I didn't want it to get around. If the mare hadn't trusted me some, surely she wouldn't have given me this, not when you had just flown out moments before.” Bakewell shook her head to clear her thoughts before trotting back to the gate.

Kira nodded in agreement to Kestrel, it was about time that the group got after the slaver to take them down and earn their caps. The gryphoness made sure that her saddlebag was ready and secured as she looked to the group to show that she was ready for this hunt.

The group congregated at the gate, armed, armoured and ready to hit the west road. It was late morning by now, going by the pallid light reaching through the clouds, which might mean a night of roughing it, depending on how far the slaver camp was.

What was once a minor highway in Old Equestria was now nothing more than the culmination of decades of hoof and wheel tracks carving a line through the deadened earth. For a long time – longer than many of Stableton’s residents could remember – the west road hadn’t seen much traffic, due to a veritable infestation of raiders. Recently, however, the raider attacks to Stableton’s west have seen a sharp, inexplicable decline, and the west road has seen considerably more use, most notably by traders.

The group had been travelling for some hours, the road unusually quiet; there was no traffic, no roaming packs of hungry wildlife, no slavers, no raiders, nothing. Without any clear instructions or directions to follow, they were searching for signs of activity, or pretty much anything that might springboard to a lead on the slavers.

It wasn’t until mid-afternoon, when in the distance they noticed a wisp of black, oily smoke painting the murky cloud cover. They headed towards the ominous beacon. From atop a rise, they could see a small cottage located only a few hundred metres from the road, the smoke coming from somewhere behind it.

Cuppa had followed Bake and Flash over to the side to talk about what the beige mare had been given. Cuppa couldn't recognise him, so she didn't have much to add, but she agreed to stay silent.

Though once back with the group, Kes presented Cuppa with the armour he had for her, telling her to don it quickly. With a few adjustments Cuppa managed to get it to fit well enough, she was sure she'd get used to the clunky feel of wearing combat armour.------------

Now though, on the road that headed west from Stableton, Cuppa looked out to see the wisps of black smoke that were coming from behind a cottage. "Ah dunno wha' it is, but ah think we best check it." Was Cuppa's simple opinion on the matter, fidgeting slightly to get used to the armour better.

Kestrel had, as per tradition, kept his beak shut and his eyes moving the whole time the group had been walking down the road. The lack of anything around was not comforting to him in the least, not even the bloat-sprites were out. To Kes that meant only one thing.

Something was very, very wrong.

This thought train was only reinforced by the appearance of inky black smoke on the horizon, just behind the quaint walls of somepony or griffons cottage.

Kestrel nodded his agreement with Cuppa and drew his Hellsing, checking the pressure gauge and then nodding to the others.

"Pair up, Spread out, and search the place. I don't like this." Kes said waiting for one of the others to come over to him before he started moving around towards the source of the smoke; Hellsing ready to fire at any time.

Splitting up into teams of two? It sounded a bit overly complicated. Kestrel probably knew what he was doing, though. He hadn’t exactly steered her wrong so far. That just left the option of who would go with Bakewell. The mare looked around. She didn’t want to be the last one with a team, but at the same time she didn’t want to keep others away from who they wanted to ally with.

Flash would probably go with the black pegasus. Bakewell didn’t know his name, but did know that he served as a securit- urgh. “Deputy”. The two would probably want to stick together. Kira seemed to be kinda close to Kestrel, so she would probably want to stick with him. That left… Cuppa Beans. Which suited the beige mare just fine anyhow.

Lightning simply gave a small nod to Bakewell. "Let's keep our eye out and we'll see what happens..." Turning back to the gate with the earth pony, he walked back to the others and prepared to move out.

~~~

Walking quietly with the rest of the group, Lightning was rather surprised by how quiet this journey was. Generally, they would see at least some kind of life out here. Raiders was common on this road. At least in the past, they were. Wildlife was also very common but that seemed to be absent as well. What is going on? Where did everything go?

A small wisp of smoke rose in the distance ahead of them and that was enough to make the stallion feel uneasy. Smoke meant ponies. And ponies could mean slavers. Lightning watched as Kestrel drew his Hellsing and ordered the group to pair up then move out. The pegasus would look towards Dash and motion with his head to follow before he drew his .45 pistol from his holster. The two pegasi were both snipers and both were skilled in stealth. So it only made sense for Lightning to pick Dash as his partner. And plus, they were friends and Dash was his deputy as well. Moving to the side, the blue pegasus stallion began to distance himself from the rest of the group, hoping that if a firefight broke out where the main group was, they would be able to use their sniper rifles and provide covering fire.

Teams of two? Well that didn't leave many options for Cuppa, she couldn't really team up with Kira, Flash or Dash, she only knew them by name and face.. Kes seemed too elite for her to work with in a pair for now, as if she'd lessen him in some way.

It left a rather helpful pony to be Cuppa's safest choice at least, she knew Bakewell and she could trust the mare to keep her alive. And now Bakewell was asking Cuppa if she wanted to team up. "Sure, ah didn't think anypony would go wi' me unless they had no choice." She responded with a smile.

Kira had been watching the smoke in the distance that she had in the beginning guessed come from a settlement but had hoped that it was not so, but this was just the nature of the wasteland that this happened.

"Okay I guess I am with you Kestrel." She said as she pulled out her grenade launcher, honestly she did not mind that much being pared up with the gryphon but in all honestly he did scare her at time.

Dash nodded to Kes and then to Lightning as they began spreading out. He readied his Marksmare Carbine and moved alongside Lightning, "If you see anything, Lightning, just let me know and I'll light it up." Dash whispered. Lightning had more freedom of movement with the pistol than Dash had with his carbine. Lightning would be able to quickly acquire targets while Dash could lay down heavy suppressing fire on them. He maintained a steady vigil as they moved, he felt the usual bloodlust he got when he knew he was up against slavers, but as always he was able to use his anger to give him focus.

The groups split up and began to approach the cottage from slightly different directions, each trying to cover the other groups, in case something horrible should erupt from the doorway. As they neared, a slight breeze blew towards them, bringing with it the pungent and sadly recognisable smell of decomposition.

As they drew closer, Dash and Flash nearly tripped over a pair of recently incinerated pony corpses. Looking closer, there were still small shards of what appeared to be armour still attached here and there.

Moving ahead of the other two pairs, Kestrel and Kira moved around the back of the cottage, where a weakly smoldering fire was slowly consuming a tyre that had rolled into it at some point. The back of cottage was similarly closed and the windows too opaque to see through. The smell of death was stronger here, seeming to almost radiate from the cottage.

Bakewell and Cuppa made a line towards the front door, treading carefully so as to make as little noise as possible. As they approached, they heard a rustling sound. They stopped and looked around. Bakewell noticed a long since shrivelled shrub in the cottage’s dessicated garden; just as she was about to look away, it shook, and she noticed a glint of icy blue.

Tightening the grip on his rifle Kestrel looked around the area he and his partner had just walked into. The fire had been expected, its source similarly so. But he'd also been expecting something a bit more...bodies perhaps, or even some left over tracks.

Instead all he could find is the smell of death and a burning tyre.

Something itched at the back of his mind however, and Kestrel continued moving; gaze narrowed as he searched for a way inside the cottage before him. He could almost feel it...something was here. He just didn't know where it was.

Looking around for a way inside, the massive griffon would attempt to find a way inside the cottage. And should he find one, sneak inside. By the smell of things, it was unlikely that there was anyone inside still alive. Kestrel was not going to be taking any chances however.

(Perception 8 looking for a way inside the cottage. Sneak 80 to get inside undetected.)

Lightning gave a small nod to Dash when the pegasus told him to alert him if he spotted a target. The blue stallion was planning to do that anyways but whatever. Walking slowly and in a slightly lowered position, Lightning kept an eye on the groups near them and for any possible threats. When the wind picked up and the smell entered his nose, he frowned in displeasure. Something or somepony had been dead here for a very long time.

And before long, the two pegasi had stumbled upon two bodies. Recently burned. Lightning stopped walking and took the time to examine the bodies. He would whisper to Dash, "Do slavers burn their enemies like that? This seems a little...out of the ordinary." If or when the pegasus would respond, Lightning simply kept moving toward the building, stopping a good distance away that he believed would be good for a sniping position.

Bakewell’s nose wrinkled in disgust as the smell of decomposing flesh as she and Cuppa approached the house, the others went around, so Bakewell thought that going for the front door would be a decent option. She didn’t get very far before her ears picked up a rustling sound, causing her to stop. Mysterious movement did not couple well with the horrible stench of decay.

When her eyes spotted the movement, Bakewell froze and stared at the shrub.

“Cee?” She whispered, nudging her companion’s hoof lightly and not daring to take her eyes away from the bush. “We’re not alone. Something’s in that shrub over there.”

The real question was what? She hadn’t gotten a good look at the glint. Was it the flash of an eye? A flickering of blue hide? The scope of a gun? A pilot light? Bakewell really, really hoped that it wasn’t a scope or a pilot light of some sort of confusing energy weapon.

“Hello?” She asked softly. “I know you’re there. Come out. We don’t want to hurt you.” She tried to comfort, just in case the object was sentient and non-hostile, though honestly Bakewell expected it to be neither. The mare slowly trotted ever so slightly closer, but still trying to keep distance good enough to prevent whatever was inside from leaping upon her without a running start and vice versa. Bakewell prepared herself for the incoming attack she was positive would follow. Trying to talk was almost always pointless in the wasteland’s shoot first ruleset, but Bakewell had to at least try. It made sleeping easier if she wasn’t the first to attack.

Cuppa hadn't noticed what Bake had as she looked around, only spotting it after Bakewell brought it to her attention with a gentle bump of her hoof and a pointing out that there was something in the shrub.

Giving a gentle nod as she readied herself, Cuppa anticipated something was going to jump out if they approached it. Bakewell was attempting to talk to whatever it was, hoping that it would be nice enough to come out instead of doing whatever it may intend to do, if it was sentient at all, it could just be a particularly shiny box.

Dash squinted at the ashen remains of the ponies, "No..." Dash growled, "Slavers are more the 'shoot you and leave you to die' type..." he finished and continued scanning. As always, it disheartened Dash to see dead ponies who might have not deserved the death they had been given, but there was also the possibility that these ponies had been hostile. So Dash decided to push it out of his mind for the time being.

As Bakewell got closer, a large black cat suddenly jumped out of the dead foliage, its cerulean eyes gleaming as it screamed its hellish cat scream and quickly raced off into the distance.

Kestrel slowly made his around the cottage until he reached the back door. He carefully, slowly tried the handle, but it seemed to be locked, and for now he didn't try to force it. Instead, he started checking windows, but found them either obscured by furniture pressed up against them, or covered by heavy drapes. He made his way back around to the front of the cottage, where he spotted Bakewell and Cuppa, who were standing near a bush. He also noticed Flash getting into a good cover position, with Dash keeping watch slightly further back.

He turned to look at the cottage face, and noticed a striking black and white symbol on the door. As he got near, there was the faintest smell of... paint. The symbol was quite fresh.

He tried the door, and it opened easily with a soft creak.

He was instantly assaulted by the smell of rotting flesh, and was soon witness to a scene of unrestrained carnage. There were five more adult pony bodies strewn about the cottage, each sporting numerous bullet wounds and lying amidst what was almost a carpet of spent bullet casings. Most of the furniture was splintered and scattered about the room, severely damaged by gunfire.

Anypony (or griffon) who could stomach the smell and enter the cottage would notice that they all appeared to be wearing some shoddy armour. Looking about the room would reveal more details, such as the stack of bones upon a counter and a macabre decorative piece made of dried pony skin against the wall.

Last edited by World Warden on Fri Dec 07, 2012 7:23 am; edited 1 time in total

Kestrel had to ignore the rather rancid scent of death and decay currently assaulting his sinuses as he looked over the inside of the building.

This wasn't slaver activity...this was a slaughter. More akin to something Raiders would do, not slavers...no too messy, to extreme.

And that symbol on the door, in a way it seemed familiar, but at the same time was alien to him. What did it mean? He committed it to memory then began moving about the room. Checking bodies, drawers, the strange, disturbing altar, anything he could find that could, perhaps, reveal to him the origins of the symbol.